Press Releases
| COMPANY CONTACT Jeff Raice Packet Design, Inc 408.490.1034 jeff@packetdesign.com |
Packet Design's MPLS WAN Explorer Lets Enterprises Ensure
Correct Operation of Outsourced MPLS VPNs
IT Managers Can Determine Site-to-Site Reachability,
Know Whether VPN Topology Aligns with Enterprise Policy
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 2, 2009 – Packet Design has introduced the first network management product that lets enterprises monitor their outsourced MPLS VPNs (Multi-protocol Label Switching Virtual Private Networks) to determine whether service providers have set them up correctly and if information is moving as intended between corporate sites.
MPLS WAN Explorer extends Packet Design's route analytics technology beyond enterprise borders to quickly identify changes in network "reachability" (the ability of IP traffic to move between any two sites at a given time) and verify that the service provider has deployed the MPLS VPN routing architecture according to enterprise policy (e.g., hub-and-spoke, full mesh, etc.). Enterprise IT managers, who previously had no visibility into the routing of traffic over the service provider's network, gain crucial information on issues that can significantly impact service delivery.
While an increasing number of enterprises outsource their inter-site wide-area network (WAN) routing to service providers, those providers as yet offer no service-level agreements (SLAs) for WAN routing. Furthermore, there have been no management tools to show IT managers whether such services are being delivered as contracted – or when providers have made routing errors that can affect service. MPLS WAN Explorer is designed to restore the missing WAN visibility to enterprises, giving them the information they need to troubleshoot, determine the source of problems (i.e., enterprise vs. provider), reduce operating costs, and effectively plan for network growth and change.
MPLS WAN Explorer is an enhanced version of Packet Design's original Route Explorer product, the first network management system to provide organizations with end-to-end visibility into their layer 3 (routing) topology. By extending this capability across the VPN infrastructure, MPLS WAN Explorer helps network managers quickly find problems such as 1) loss of reachability to critical servers even though all sites are connected, 2) a service provider's failure to adhere to the customer's requested topology, 3) loss of redundancy because a primary VPN has gone down and traffic is being routed over a secondary VPN, and 4) route "leakage" among service provider customers, with the resulting compromised privacy. These issues, while they may not display immediate symptoms, can negatively affect network behavior and service delivery – and are typically undetectable by conventional management tools.
MPLS WAN Explorer also works with Packet Design's Traffic Explorer to overlay actual enterprise traffic on the network, including on the MPLS VPNs, and monitor it by specific application and class of service using Netflow data. This goes beyond the link-specific traffic information gathered by conventional traffic-analysis tools, providing site-level and site-to-site data that is aggregated across all VPN connections.
Visualizing Complex Provider-Enterprise Interactions
"VPN topologies are highly complex," said Jeff Raice, Packet Design's executive vice president of marketing and business development. "A large enterprise may use several service providers, each providing multiple VPNs. Corporate policy may dictate that certain sites talk only to certain providers or VPNs, and some VPNs may be implemented across multiple providers. Until now, the enterprise's view of its WAN stopped where the provider's network started. The IT manager had no way of knowing if one site was reachable from another, or of determining whether a WAN service problem originated with the provider or the enterprise itself. Guesswork delayed effective troubleshooting, while operating costs shot up and users suffered.
"With 'MPLS WAN-aware' route analytics, users can view the complex WAN topology beyond the edges of the enterprise, using a detailed map that shows distinct VPNs and highlights reachability problems. IT managers need no longer fear losing control when outsourcing their WAN routing. Now they can accurately assess how well their providers are doing, and hold those providers accountable for agreed-upon services and policies."
How MPLS WAN Explorer Works
Like Route Explorer, MPLS WAN Explorer listens passively to routing protocol (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, IS-IS) exchanges, creating an accurate, real-time, network-wide routing map that reveals clearly how each site is connected to the VPN(s) and whether any given site can talk to any other. Real-time inter-site reachability is compared against an established baseline, helping identify possible problems.
MPLS WAN Explorer offers the following capabilities:
- Reachability monitoring. Alerts can be triggered to indicate partial or full loss of site-to-site reachability (by site or VPN), routing instabilities, or enterprise routing policy violations (e.g., departure from a mandated architecture).
- Forensic troubleshooting. MPLS VPN Explorer records a complete history of all routing events, which network engineers can "rewind" and "replay" to examine routing and traffic conditions at the time a problem occurred. This lets them easily diagnose inconsistent and hard-to-detect problems such as the intermittent router failures known as "route flaps," which can severely degrade service delivery.
- Root-cause analysis. If reachability between two sites is lost, the user can drill down to determine whether the problem occurred at one of the two sites or within the service provider's network. Using a path-tracing capability, the problem can be localized to the routers and links that were carrying the application traffic at the time of the problem.
- Modeling and planning. MPLS WAN Explorer works with the as-running network, providing a completely accurate, up-to-the-minute topology rather than an offline, outdated model. The network manager can simulate changes (e.g., bringing up a new site, assigning a site to a different VPN) and immediately see their impact on the topology.
- End-to-end traffic analysis. Used in conjunction with Traffic Explorer, MPLS WAN Explorer can show ingress and egress traffic reports (by site and WAN link); site-to-site traffic statistics; traffic breakdown by class of service (e.g., gold/silver/bronze) or traffic type (voice, video, specific application); and "Top N" reports (e.g., top talkers, listeners, protocols).
MPLS WAN Explorer can scale to support thousands of sites in a large enterprise. And because the product leverages information from standard routing protocols, no changes are required to the service provider's routers or network.
Pricing and Availability
MPLS WAN Explorer is available immediately. A typical enterprise deployment is priced starting at $100,000. Existing Route Explorer customers can upgrade to MPLS WAN Explorer for $35,000. Traffic Explorer must be purchased separately.
About Packet Design, Inc.
Packet Design, Inc., pioneered the field of route analytics and is the leading supplier of network appliances that provide routing-layer visibility into IP networks. The company's products create an accurate layer 3 topology map, analyze routing events, and provide a unique end-to-end, "path-aware" view of network traffic (including MPLS-VPN customer traffic), letting network engineers quickly pinpoint network problems and accurately model changes. Packet Design solutions help manage networks in hundreds of organizations, including many of the world's largest service providers, global enterprises (financial, retail pharmaceutical and other firms), government agencies and educational institutions.
Packet Design was founded in March 2003 by serial entrepreneur and former Cisco Chief Technology Officer Judy Estrin and former Cisco Chief Scientist Van Jacobson. For more information, visit www.packetdesign.com.
Learn more about Packet Design products
© 2010. Packet Design Inc.
